Not getting ‘pounded’ by emergency department has let this rural P.E.I. hospital flourish – CBC
‘Having said that, it was a loss to lose the emergency department’
Jul 06, 2023
A physician in Western P.E.I. says closing O’Leary’s emergency department has given hospital staff the freedom they need to provide a host of new services for the region.
Dr. Gil Grimes, a family doctor at Community Hospital O’Leary, admits it’s not what he would have predicted back in 2008.
That’s when provincial government officials removed emergency and outpatient services at the hospital, centralizing those services at the nearby Western Hospital in Alberton.
“Not having the emergency room gives us a lot of freedom in here to do different things,” Grimes said this week.
“The whole reason we have the palliative unit, the whole reason we can do such excellent restorative and rehabilitative care, is because we’re not constantly getting pounded by the emergency department.”
